Matrix Games and Koios Works (www.koiosworks.com) are pleased to announce the release of the first update for Panzer Command: Operation Winter Storm. This first update adds major new gameplay features and also resolves several minor issues.

New features include more detailed infantry casualty and suppression modeling as well as new icons to indicate these changes. Commanders now also have a Defend -> Hold Fire sub order with three options allowing the commander to choose when his units engage targets. A handy LOS tool has also been added to the order menu showing why your LOS is blocked when its rubberband turns translucent.

In addition, new Scenario Editing Tools created by John Sestan have been included to make modifying or creating your own scenario easier than ever. The v1.12 update also includes two new bonus scenarios, “Welcome to Kotelnikovo” and “Hell’s Gate”.

Changes include improvements to Area HE fire and HE fire against infantry in buildings, as well as a number of minor fixes and data corrections. All told the change list includes 19 bug fixes and 11 new features. We recommend that all owners of Panzer Command update to v1.12 for the best possible game experience.

Panzer Command: Operation Winter Storm is a 3D simultaneous turn based strategy game where you command either the Soviet or German forces during the desperate attempt to reach the encircled German 6th Army at Stalingrad. Each side has detailed 3D units of the historical vehicles and squads, from Panzer IIIs and T-34s to PanzerGrenadiers, Artillery and Air Strikes. Two full campaigns (one German, one Soviet) tie the scenarios together, allowing core units to progress from battle to battle, gaining experience, medals and special abilities. A point system allows players to “purchase” additional units for each mission in the campaign as well as replace losses, forcing decisions on management of resources.

The design for Operation Winter Storm lets first time users sit down and start playing, while allowing hard-core gamers to enjoy the realism and historical accuracy. All campaign battles can also be fought as individual scenarios and two separate skirmish scenarios are included for maximum replayability. The AI can control either side in each battle and a full Play-by-Email system allows for head to head play.

Panzer Command: Operation Winter Storm is also the first 3D tactical WWII game where the unit and weapon data as well as the unit art is stored in easily accessible formats to enable mod support and customized scenarios and campaigns post-release.

Special thanks to John "Laryngoscope" Sestan, who granted his permission for the inclusion of his Scenario Editing tool and Scenario Description Import tool. You will find these now linked in your Start Menu folder and also in your installation folder. There is a new readme file which explains how to use these tools to quickly create and modify scenarios.

Fixes and Changes: -----

1. Fixed incorrect message log message that displayed deflection result message for some shots that penetrated but did no damage. These will now be reported as "penetrated, but caused no damage" rather than "deflected". This caused there to appear to be more deflections than were actually occurring.

3. Routing units no longer count toward ownership of objectives that they happen to be near.

4. Infantry units now default to kneeling instead of standing when idle and/or firing (except when advancing and firing)

5. Fixed a bug that made Direct Area HE fire less effective against field artillery in some cases. This bug also made Direct Area HE fire less effective against unspotted units.

6. Removed 50 point reduction for Player as Defender. On Normal difficulty, the player will not get exactly the points listed in the scenario file. At Hard Difficulty, the player gets 75% of the points listed, but never less than what is needed to purchase the core battle group. At Easy Difficulty, the opposing side gets 67% of the points listed.

7. Fixed a problem that prevented the main menu music from playing correctly.

8. Fixed a missing morale failure message for infantry surrendering, which would display as "???" in the event log rather than with the intended surrender text.

9. Fixed a bug that in rare cases would return an incorrect facing aspect from turret to target when at a specific angle.

10. Fixed a rare bug where tracer fire for infantry firing when mounted could get misplaced and show up firing from a map edge.

11. Added support for intro movies.

12. Fixed a rare bug that could prevent fire at infantry in buildings at a few very specific angles.

13. Improved the behavior of building transparency, as this was sometimes not making a building transparent when a new unit in the building was sighted. Buildings should now consistently become transparent when sighted enemy or friendly infantry are inside and be non-transparent when no one is inside or when those inside have not been sighted.

14. Infantry in buildings are now more vulnerable to Direct HE fire. Direct HE fire now has a chance of penetrating a building and affecting infantry inside at its full firepower.

15. Fixed an artillery bug where offboard shots could endanger units in other parts of the map

16. Fixed a glitch where destroyed squads could still take up a mount point in a building after replay or reload, preventing new squads from mounting.

17. The SdKfz 222 and T-60 received their supply of HE and their firepower is now significantly upgraded.

18. Corrected some minor data issues, adjusted the infantry data to better show the differences in firepower between the various squads and teams.

19. Fixed a bug that would cause a crash if attempting to load a unit without a custom model (i.e. with the model set to "generic")

Improvements: -----

1. The game manual has been updated to include the v1.12 changes and the v1.00 update to the PBEM play.

2. A new bonus set battle scenario, "Welcome to Kotelnikovo" is included in this update.

3. A new bonus single scenario campaign "Hell's Gate", by John Sestan, is included in this update.

4. Added more detailed infantry casualty modeling. We now track casualties to infantry units in several steps. Each time an infantry unit takes fire, it may be destroyed or may take casualties. The first time it takes casualties, it will be marked as having taken light casualties. The second time it takes casualties, it will be marked as having taken heavy casualties. If it takes casualties a third time, it is destroyed. It is still possible to destroy an infantry unit in one attack, but unlikely. Units that have suffered light casualties have a 50% chance of -1 Firepower each time they fire. They also have -1 to Close Assault, -1 to Rally and -1 to Suppression Recovery rolls. Units that have suffered heavy casualties have a 100% chance of a firepower adjustment of -1 and a 50% chance of a firepower adjustment of -2 each time they fire. They also have -2 to Close Assault, -2 to Rally, -2 to Suppression Recovery rolls and -1 to Base Morale. These different states are shown by a new indicator. Gray = No Casualties, One Medkit = Light Casualties, Two Medkits = Heavy Casualties, Skull = Destroyed.

5. Added more detailed infantry suppression modeling. Infantry that are already suppressed can now be pinned down if suppressed again. Infantry that are pinned down have to unpin before they can unsuppress. A unit that is pinned down takes an additional -1 firepower modifier (on top of being suppressed) and a -2 Close Assault modifier. Pinned units cannot move until they are unpinned. These different states are shown by a new indicator. Gray = Unsuppressed, Yellow Kneeling Soldier = Suppressed, Yellow Prone Soldier = Pinned Down.

6. Added new Defend sub-order: Defend->HoldFire - There are 3 hold fire options: Hold unless good shot, Hold unless Close Assault, and Hold All Fire - only infantry units can use the hold unless close assault.

7. Added a new immediate order for Cancel Target - this command will order a unit that has an existing target to no longer target. Unless otherwise targeted, the unit will autoselect a target during planning. This is useful if you want to cancel an existing target and let the AI pick a new target for the unit or if you want to halt direct area fire.

8. Added a Line of Sight (LOS) tool to the order menu. It works similar to the existing target rubberband. However, the LOS tool will show you the current maximum LOS distance (based on terrain/sighting factors along the line of sight) and will tell you why LOS is blocked once the rubberband turns translucent. This new information appears on the second line of the readout next to the mouse pointer in the format [Maximum LOS Distance] [Reason for Blocked Line of Sight]

9. Adding Facing as sub order to the Engage menu. Units that are under Defend or Engage orders can now choose to change facing during the reaction phase. Doing so will change the unit's facing during the reaction phase but cancel any other movement the unit had previously assigned.

10. Added additional support for modding unit data. The scenario XML files now have a tag for 'models' (assignment is to 'default'). Unit data files now have a new tag for 'set' structure with an element tag setid. (assignment is to 'default'). Under 'set' is a list of all the in-game models to use. Now, to use different models, just add a new 'set' and assign it a custom setid. Update any scenarios with the new setid for the 'models' tag and the new models will be loaded instead of the default models. If new models do not exist for a given unit, the game will load the default models. This will allow modders to add entirely new models and/or meshes without having to overwrite the existing data. Please see modification guide for more details.

11. The targeting line has been improved to now show the maximum line of sight distance in meters when a shot is unobstructed or, when obstructed, to note the reason for the obstruction or blockage. This will also now tell you when a shot is out of your sighting arc, which means you need to change unit facing in order to shoot.

ORIGINAL: sapper_astro Where can i get this from? I just bought the game and it says there is no download in my registered games account.

We generally only limit beta updates to being registered downloads. All official updates do not require registration to download and can be accessed in one of the following ways:

1. On our Support Page, click on the Downloads link 2. On the main page for the Members Club click on the link for official updates 3. On the main Games page, click on the "Latest Downloads" link in the top left.